This invention relates to machine-operator interfaces and in particular to mimic and interactive displays and modifications to touch sensitive control panels in reproduction machines.
The development of more complex and varied office machines has resulted in increasing problems in instructing operators in the proper operation of the machine. This has been particularly true in the evolution of office copying and printing machines where the machines have become highly sophisticated and function rich. The machines have been provided with operator interactive consoles consisting of an array of buttons, knobs, displays and indicator lights associated with various modes of operation, resulting in increased operator errors and the consequent malfunction and undesired machine operation.
Efforts have been made to improve the presentation of information to an operator by listing the number of instructions or information messages displayed at any one time and by guiding an operator through a step-by-step sequence of displayed messages prompting operator entry. For example, it has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,994, commonly assigned, to provide an operating console that sequentially presents operator input instructions, prompting an operator to copy number and function selection information using the same keys of a single keyboard. As a result, the fast array of buttons typically associated with the operating console of a machine can be eliminated in favor of a simplified keyboard input device. U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,829, commonly assigned, teaches a multi-task button and cascade illumination control panel in which the successive keying of a single control button sequencies the system to alternate control modes, and at the same time an illuminating lamp indicates the particular mode selected.
It is also known in the prior art to provide a control panel divided into entry programs and display sections for interaction between the operator and the reproduction machine. The entry portion, for example, might progressively ask for job number, light or dark originals, reduction size, or duplex operation. Numerical information is then entered or a "Yes" or "No" key is activated in response. Other patents, such as commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,464 teaches a user interface device having a video display capable of presenting desired images to the machine operator and a touch sensitive device capable of detecting operator request by means of the operator touching the surface of the video display. A standard keyboard may also be employed when typed responses are required of the operator. The user interface device is controlled by a general purpose computer and the visual elements presented to the user on the user interface device include instructions in text and images.
It is also known in the prior art to use graphic displays or icons to illustrate a copier configuration. The graphic displays can also involve the use of selectively energizable elements to cue the user on specific portions of the copier needing attention or maintenance. Thus, in a copier incorporating a recirculating document handler, a flashing icon of such a document handler, may indicate to the user a jam in the paper circulating in the document handler. This type of cueing can be particularly effective when coupled with an alphanumeric message reinforcing the user's perception of the problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,806, commonly assigned, disclosed a display having two microprocessors for displaying information on a display panel, a first microprocessor responsible for energizing alphanumeric elements to either send messages to the copier user or to prompt the user to interact with the copier. A second display is a liquid crystal display wherein selectively energizable liquid crystal elements corresponding to copier components can be rendered visible under the control of a second microprocessor. An overlay pattern can be placed above the liquid crystal display to present to the user in outline form, the copier architecture in which the user is interacting.
As a further step in operator machine interfaces, touch sensitive control panels are being used more and more. The essence of such touch sensitive control panels are transparent membrane switches wherein conductive membranes are brought into engagement with one another to close a circuit to effect a particular function upon touching as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,999. In addition, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,431,882 and 4,490,587 are further examples of membrane switches and switch assemblies. Generally, membrane panel overlays are produced from flat extruded film target areas that can be debossed or embossed by the application of pressure and/or heat. The difficulty with this technique is that such deformation of a flat uniform surface introduces twists, irregularities, and waviness that detract from a quality appearance. In addition, the embossed areas are relatively level and not easily distinguishable to the touch or pressure of a finger thus compromising the usual tactile feel of an engaged or touched switch. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide membrane switch actuators that are sufficiently raised to be visually and tactilely prominent, as well as rigid to the touch and transparent to an integral indicator light, while the adjacent areas are flexible.
It is common to use alphanumeric dot matrix displays in current control panels with LCD lighting technology. Generally, however, such displays are often barely noticeable by the user. Attempts to correct the problem usually includes some method of back lighting the display thus changing an essentially passive display into an active light emitting display. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a display which fits precisely behind the LCD dot matrix display and provides an even, strong, long lasting and low current illuminator.
A difficultly with the prior art panel interfaces is that the operating instructions, feature selections, and system status information displays tend to be presented in a linear, sequential fashion resulting in long and complex control display clusters. It would be desirable to alleviate this problem by layering information components.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide new and improved techniques to simplify the operator machine interface. It is another object of the present invention to combine the molding of Bezel overlays with the flexibility of thin membrane extruded films of similar materials in order that membrane switch actuators are sufficiently raised to visually and tactilely prominent as well as rigid to the touch and transparent to an integral indicator light. It is another object of the present invention to provide a plasma solid area illuminator located precisely behind an LCD display to give a strong, long lasting low current illumination. It is still another object of the present invention to provide layered information components on a control panel by providing feature access controls positioned adjacent and surrounding a display to provide layered information to an operator in successive layers using frames on a CRT, variable dot matrix-type displays, or multi-position selector knobs, projection and scrolls. Further advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds and the features characterizing the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.